ozpost shipping module

We were caught up in the problems, Rod and I had some points of difference within the PM system. To cut through the issue we used Rod to tidy up our Aust Post module. He came in and installed the new ozpost module and it is working a treat. Only thing the ozpost module doesn't do is order the red van to your door to pick up your freight.

Thanks Rod

Dave

Hi there.

Got this module the other day, works great! But the shipping doesn't seem to calculate correctly for multiple items... How come? Am I missing something? All products have the right weight and dimension properties.

Here's the site - http://www.lizdisler.com

Appreciate your support, RM.

Hi MAte,
i must be a real dummy ...i have installed your latest versionof oz post to my zen cart .38 and have set it up in the shipping in the admin section and disabled the rest ..... however when you go through the cart there is no oz post there to do any thing with?? i have uploaded it correctly can you help???
thanks
john:cry:

seqservices:

i have uploaded it correctly can you help???

Not with the information (lackof) that you have provided.

Cheers
Rod

Rod is there a way to update the values of the shipping options? Aust Post changes its pricing more often than banks change interest rates, gets hard to adjust things like handling fees etc to try and fill the gap. Or am I missing something here?? :D

ExtremeRC:

Rod is there a way to update the values of the shipping options?

No. Nor is there any need to. The prices are updated on the server when needed.

ExtremeRC:

Aust Post changes its pricing more often than banks change interest rates,

Australia Post charges are highly regulated. Except in rare/special circumstances any price adjustments are made in September of any given year. Sometimes they'll go 2 or 3 years without changes.

ExtremeRC:

gets hard to adjust things like handling fees etc to try and fill the gap.

I'm not sure what you mean by "fill the gap"?

Cheers
Rod

hi rod,

from my understanding of the auspost module the cubing works by adding the dimensions together, is it possible (read difficult) to change this so that if there are multiple items in the shopping cart (and they all have their respective dimensions included) then the ozpost module sends seperate postage requests and then adds them up to get a combined postage??

or is this something that is going to be include later on?

thanks in advance

netgirlz:

hi rod,

from my understanding of the auspost module the cubing works by adding the dimensions together,

Correct.

netgirlz:

is it possible (read difficult) to change this so that if there are multiple items in the shopping cart (and they all have their respective dimensions included) then the ozpost module sends seperate postage requests and then adds them up to get a combined postage??

or is this something that is going to be include later on?

It isn't something I've considered, mainly because the per-weight shipping module seems more suitable for this requirement.

Cheers
Rod

RodG:

...mainly because the per-weight shipping module seems more suitable for this requirement...

does the per-weight module work with cubing rules?

Andrejs

I seem to recall Aust Post pricing was raised 3 times? in 2007 I think it was, fuel costs being cited for rises during the year.

I dont understand what you mean by updated on the server? Is the module looking at austpost.com.au? Not a pc person...

Hi Rod, I've been merrily rolling along with my OZpost since the problem was fixed on my site. Just seem to have encountered some major miscalculations lately that I can't find the solutions to. i.e. have checked the weight and dimensions of items and doing a test run through with an item that should come up with $1.10 it's coming up with errors and defaulting to $4. in once instance the total bill for postage was $13.95 or similar and it should have been around 4.65. Is it me? or maybe Aussie post is having some glitches too?

artycles:

Just seem to have encountered some major miscalculations lately that I can't find the solutions to. i.e. have checked the weight and dimensions of items and doing a test run through with an item that should come up with $1.10 it's coming up with errors and defaulting to $4. in once instance the total bill for postage was $13.95 or similar and it should have been around 4.65. Is it me? or maybe Aussie post is having some glitches too?

I'm going to suggest that it is just you.

Perhaps if you can provide a link to your store and one of the products that are giving the miscalculations I'll be able to take a look at it for you though.

Cheers
Rod

it's behaving again today :clap: just had one through and it's back to normal today.

kaysartycles.com.au

hey rod,

just trying to get ozpost working on an updated zencart installation, it looks like on the checkout_shipping page its only trying to use the cache, however if i force it to get a new quote from the server it returns http://ozpost.vcsweb.com/postage.php?fromcode=3108&destcode=6057&weight=140.8&height=25&width=250&length=290&value=3.5&flags=0&=&host=HotBeadBox&version=1.0.2 which seems like it's returning valid postage methods, however nothing is still displayed on the shipping page- only a flat rate option unrelated to ozpost shows up. Disabling the flat rate option in admin causes no shipping options to show up at all

Any ideas?

errno:

just trying to get ozpost working on an updated zencart installation,

If you are NOT referring to http://hotbeadbox.com/ then a URL to the site could be useful.

If you ARE referring to http://hotbeadbox.com/ then you are NOT using ozpost at all, but the much older austpost module that is no longer fully functional.

errno:

it looks like on the checkout_shipping page its only trying to use the cache,

The ozpost module will only try to use the cache if the cache has what it considers to be valid data. Simply changing the number of items in the cart, (or the shipping postcodes) will cause fresh data to be retrieved.

errno:

however if i force it to get a new quote from the server it returns http://ozpost.vcsweb.com/postage.php?fromcode=3108&destcode=6057&weight=140.8&height=25&width=250&length=290&value=3.5&flags=0&=&host=HotBeadBox&version=1.0.2 which seems like it's returning valid postage methods,

I'm finding this a little confusing at the moment, because the debugging URL you just gave indicates that your host is "HotBeadBox" , but when I just checked the site the shipping estimator produces the following error

"Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/hotbead/public_html/includes/modules/shipping/austpost.php" - Which is telling me that you are using austpost rather than ozpost.

errno:

Any ideas?

More information (or a URL to whatever site you are working with) would be very helpful.

Having said that, assuming hotbeadbox.com isn't the site in question and that you are indeed using ozpost rather than austpost, the most likely cause of your problem is with the version of php that you are using. ozpost requires php V5x - it is incompatible with php V4.x (php4 doesn't have the required XML parser)

Cheers
Rod

G'day Rod

I posted in this thread a while ago and found my problem to be php5. Didn't know such a thing existed until you said so......

Anyways onwards and upwards. I have a couple more queries if I may:

a. I posted a thread in another room :
http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=146069

Essentially I want to use Ozpost only for certain product categories, and Fastways for others. Any neat tricks you know of to do this ?

b. How do you deal with normalised box sizes. Say I had a standard box 20x20x10 for argument sake which could fit 1,2....10 things in it so the cost of the shipping is based upon box size rather then the cubing of the product. I am being difficult I know but thought I would ask

Thanks

Stumps

RodG:

If you are NOT referring to http://hotbeadbox.com/ then a URL to the site could be useful.

If you ARE referring to http://hotbeadbox.com/ then you are NOT using ozpost at all, but the much older austpost module that is no longer fully functional.

The ozpost module will only try to use the cache if the cache has what it considers to be valid data. Simply changing the number of items in the cart, (or the shipping postcodes) will cause fresh data to be retrieved.

I'm finding this a little confusing at the moment, because the debugging URL you just gave indicates that your host is "HotBeadBox" , but when I just checked the site the shipping estimator produces the following error

"Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/hotbead/public_html/includes/modules/shipping/austpost.php" - Which is telling me that you are using austpost rather than ozpost.

More information (or a URL to whatever site you are working with) would be very helpful.

Having said that, assuming hotbeadbox.com isn't the site in question and that you are indeed using ozpost rather than austpost, the most likely cause of your problem is with the version of php that you are using. ozpost requires php V5x - it is incompatible with php V4.x (php4 doesn't have the required XML parser)

Cheers
Rod

ah sorry Rod, its installed under hotbeadbox.com/new - you're right, the old installation is actually using the old Austpost module.

PHP5 is running for the zencart in the /new/ directory

Stumpy74:

Essentially I want to use Ozpost only for certain product categories, and Fastways for others. Any neat tricks you know of to do this ?

It can be done, but depending on your php skill level you may find it a bit daunting.

The basic idea behind how to do it is this:

Near the start of all good shipping modules is a piece of code something like this:

if (zen_get_shipping_enabled($this->code)) $this->enabled = ((MODULE_SHIPPING_OZPOST_STATUS == 'True') ? true : false);

This sets the module(s) $this->enabled variable to be true (module active) or false (module inactive), so somewhere just after this code you will need to perform a check to see which category the cart items belong to, and set the $this->enabled variable appropriately.

In psuedocode you will be looking at something like

if ITEM is in CATEGORY_FOR OZPOST then $this->enabled = TRUE
else $this->enabled = FALSE

likewise, in the fastaways module you'll need something like:

if ITEM is in CATEGORY_FOR FASTAWAY then $this->enabled = TRUE
else $this->enabled = FALSE

This is basically all there is too it. The 'hard' part (which isn't really all that hard) is finding what category the items belong to. There are other threads that have a lot more detail on how to do this. Some of them even have practical examples that you will be able to use.

I doubt that you'll ever find an 'easy' way to accomplish this because no two stores will have the same categories, and if they did the category ID's will almost certainly be different, so all I can really tell you is yes it can be done, the theory behind it is pretty simple, the implementation will only take a few lines of code, but this code will always be 'unique' for any given store.

Having said that, this 'simple' solution does suffer a few shortcomings, for example, what if the cart contains one category item that needs to go via australia post and another category item that needs to go via Fastaways?

Such a scenario will require zencart to present two different shipping costs to the customer at the same time, but zencart doesn't have the logic/capability to do this ... to make it do so will probably require a different database design, as well as many other significant changes.

Stumpy74:

b. How do you deal with normalised box sizes. Say I had a standard box 20x20x10 for argument sake which could fit 1,2....10 things in it so the cost of the shipping is based upon box size rather then the cubing of the product. I am being difficult I know but thought I would ask

How do I deal with it? Well, I don't. The reason being is that this is getting into the realm of "The holy grail of shipping modules".
Perhaps if you review the conversation I was having with **ALiepinieks
**earlier in this thread (early December 2009) you will come to appreciate that what appears to be a relatively simple requirement is actually a very complex (impossible???) task.

Cheers
Rod

errno:

ah sorry Rod, its installed under hotbeadbox.com/new -

OK, I've just checked this out, and the ozpost module itself appears to be functioning correctly in that it is returning valid data to your store, and your store appears to be correctly extracting the XML data.

I make this claim based on the results I received with 1x Amber toned Urn shaped floral focal bead in the cart , which gave a list of the following quotes:

$19.00
$4.35
$7.15
$7.15
$11.30

The $19.00 being for the 5 kg XL Satchel (what module are you using for this quote?).

The other quotes/figures (with no detail) correspond to
$4.35 Regular Parcel
$7.15 Registered Parcel
$7.15 Insured Parcel
$11.30 3kg Prepaid Satchel Express

The numbers in the description field appear to be the number of shipping days. 4,5,5,3 . This tells me that you have a postage delay setting of 2 days (correct?)

So, the question now is if the store is retrieving valid data (as it appears to be) then why isn't it displaying it correctly? This part is a real mystery to me. I've not seen anything like this before. and to be perfectly honest, I don't have an explanation for it.

Have you attempted to modify the ozpost module in any way to cater for the 5 kg XL Satchels?

What about the tpl_shipping_modules.php script? Has this been modified in any way?

If either of them have been modified my first suggestion would be to restore them back to the originals as provided by the ozpost distribution files.

If they haven't been modified, then I guess the next thing to do would be to enable the ozpost 'debug' function to see if that gives any clues.

You might also try setting the "show icons" to "off" (because the 'missing' data is actually the icon graphics). Hhmmmm, you might want to try this first .. I'd normally be expecting the page to show broken links to the icons if they were missing (or in the wrong directory) but this doesn't seem to be the case here... nonetheless by turning them off may help prove the point one way or the other.

At the moment I don't have any further suggestions. I did try to log on to see what would happen if I went through the checkout process (on the basis that even though I couldn't see what the quotes were for I should still be able to select one) but your logon script failed with the following error

Email Error: Could not execute: /usr/sbin/sendmail

I was unable to proceed further.

The main reason I wanted to proceed through the checkout process is because the icons are automatically disabled on the checkout summary screen and this would have confirmed (to me) that it is an icon display problem only and nothing more serious. Oh well, this is something you can now do for yourself :-)

Anyway, this is about as much help as I can give you at the moment - if you can let me know the results of turning the icons off and/or enabling the debug functions it may give me a few other ideas.

Cheers
Rod

RodG:

OK, I've just checked this out, and the ozpost module itself appears to be functioning correctly in that it is returning valid data to your store, and your store appears to be correctly extracting the XML data.

I make this claim based on the results I received with 1x Amber toned Urn shaped floral focal bead in the cart , which gave a list of the following quotes:

$19.00
$4.35
$7.15
$7.15
$11.30

The $19.00 being for the 5 kg XL Satchel (what module are you using for this quote?).

The other quotes/figures (with no detail) correspond to
$4.35 Regular Parcel
$7.15 Registered Parcel
$7.15 Insured Parcel
$11.30 3kg Prepaid Satchel Express

The numbers in the description field appear to be the number of shipping days. 4,5,5,3 . This tells me that you have a postage delay setting of 2 days (correct?)

So, the question now is if the store is retrieving valid data (as it appears to be) then why isn't it displaying it correctly? This part is a real mystery to me. I've not seen anything like this before. and to be perfectly honest, I don't have an explanation for it.

Have you attempted to modify the ozpost module in any way to cater for the 5 kg XL Satchels?

What about the tpl_shipping_modules.php script? Has this been modified in any way?

If either of them have been modified my first suggestion would be to restore them back to the originals as provided by the ozpost distribution files.

If they haven't been modified, then I guess the next thing to do would be to enable the ozpost 'debug' function to see if that gives any clues.

You might also try setting the "show icons" to "off" (because the 'missing' data is actually the icon graphics). Hhmmmm, you might want to try this first .. I'd normally be expecting the page to show broken links to the icons if they were missing (or in the wrong directory) but this doesn't seem to be the case here... nonetheless by turning them off may help prove the point one way or the other.

At the moment I don't have any further suggestions. I did try to log on to see what would happen if I went through the checkout process (on the basis that even though I couldn't see what the quotes were for I should still be able to select one) but your logon script failed with the following error

Email Error: Could not execute: /usr/sbin/sendmail

I was unable to proceed further.

The main reason I wanted to proceed through the checkout process is because the icons are automatically disabled on the checkout summary screen and this would have confirmed (to me) that it is an icon display problem only and nothing more serious. Oh well, this is something you can now do for yourself :-)

Anyway, this is about as much help as I can give you at the moment - if you can let me know the results of turning the icons off and/or enabling the debug functions it may give me a few other ideas.

Cheers
Rod

I havent modified the ozpost module to allow for the 5kg satchels, they are set up as a flat rate shipping option in the zencart shipping modules.

Ill check out that other script, and ill try reinstalling those files and see if it helps.

I wonder why its not displaying the detail about the package types in the shipping estimator though? They show up on estimate shipping but not actually on the checkout page.

Thanks for the help so far ill let you know how I get on once i check those things out